AMY CUTLER
NEO RAUCH
MARCEL DZAMA
TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK
PHILIP GUSTON
This week your task is twofold: Firstly, take time to choose a story that you would like to visualize for your final project. The narrative you choose can be autobiographical, historical, fictional or political in nature. Secondly, collect source material for your final series of drawings. The source material can be in the form of family photographs, diary entries, a letter from a friend, newspaper clippings, print outs from online sources, home videos, a favorite movie or film, youtube clips or objects of significance such as your favorite coffee mug, vintage tshirt, shell you collected from a beach vacation, an old concert ticket stub, etc. Ideally, bring in a variety of source material that you can reference for their visual properties or written content.
Begin this process now. Think about stories of significance--stories that you would like to tell through drawing. It might take time to decide on a story, or let a new narrative form in your minds. This is a research, prep and planning week. Do whatever you need to do to conceptualize the direction for your project. If sketches are helpful, begin making small drawings to work out your idea.
Next week is a work day. I will meet with any of you who would like my input.
In terms of materials, size, format and quantity of drawings, you have options. Here are three to consider:
1. a series of 8-12 small drawings (8.5x11 or smaller) that are presented/read sequentially.
2. one larger drawing (24"x36" or larger) that suggests your narrative economically but complexly (i.e. one drawing that is content/image rich)
3. 2-3 medium sized drawings (9x12"-18x24") that make up a series of interrelated works. How you organize content is up to you.
If your idea calls for a different size/format that any of the suggestions above, think it through and propose your idea to me by next week.
Please bring in drawing supplies and surfaces to work on in class next week.
Example of artists who tell stories through their drawings (and paintings) are below. Each of these artists tells their story indirectly or obliquely. Remember Kiki Smith's comment in the Art21 video about not wanting her work to be too obvious or declarative but instead wanting to tell open-ended stories that require the viewer to make their own meaning through her visual fragments. This is your task as well. To visually tell a story but in a way that obscures a direct reading. This can be done through:
1. Accumulation--including so much visual information that it distracts the viewer from a direct reading.
2. Layering surfaces--a way of hiding visual elements of your story through layers of transparent wash, paint or collage.....
3. Fragmentation/decontextualization--think of creating visual symbols as fragments that can be decontextualized and recontextualized in your pictures.
Enjoy the week and I'll see you on Monday,
Professor Cochran
